Hamilton starts Brazilian GP weekend on top

Lewis Hamilton has started the Brazilian GP weekend in perfect style by topping the timesheet throughout the entire first practice session. He was however closely matched by both Red Bull drivers and Jenson Button, all setting their best times on the Pirelli 2013 prototype tyres.

After the single-lap system checks, many drivers chose early on to use the Pirelli experimental 2013 tyres, marked here with red letters. The regular compounds at Brazil this year are the white medium and the silver hard tyres. Hamilton however soon found out the prototypes were overheating quickly on his McLaren, and after just a few laps he went back in to change to the regular hard tyres.

Hamilton though topped the times early on and remained on top throughout the entire session. Sebastian Vettel's fastest lap came close, just like Webber's and and lap of Button, all running to within one tenths of each other.

At the end of the session, with everybody still running on the harder tyre, as usual in first practice, Timo Glock spun when many drivers were trying to improve their times. The brief yellow flag required many to back off, leaving Hamilton's time unthreatened.

Alonso went 5th fastest, creeping a little bit closer to the best time with a final attempt on the Pirelli 2013 tyres. Massa is 6th fastest, Grosjean 7th.